1. 1 European Railway Clusters Initiative Shift²Rail Stakeholders hearing Brussels September 12th, 2013

2. 2  Introduction  ERCI : Why ? Who ? What ?  ERCI today and tomorrow in the European landscape  Shift²Rail : support, contribution, expectations Summary

3. 3  R&I clusters initiatives launched in different Member States  But today : no real cross-fertilization, fragmentation, lack of cooperation between the clusters and their members….in a world of open innovation and globalized markets  Clusters do not always have the necessary critical mass and innovation capacity to grow into world-class excellence  EU Commission seeking for inter-clustering cooperation to avoid redundancy and to promote efficiency ERCI : Why that initiative?

4. 9 European R&I driven clusters focused on : Railways, mobility and multimodality. i-Trans : Northern France BTS : Verbund Initiative Bahntechnik Sachsen – Germany CNA : Cluster Bahntechnik Bavaria – Germany TSB : Innovationsagentur Berlin GmbH – Geschäftsbereich Verkehr und Mobilität - Germany RTCA : Railway Technology Cluster Austria – Austria Railgrup : Rail Industry Cluster of Catalonia – Spain Rail Alliance : West Midlands – UK Southern Railway Cluster – Poland DITECFER : Distretto per le Tecnologie Ferroviarie - Italy Who are they?

5. 5 We are different : history, culture, organizations, focus, funding, size, maturity,… But we share : Our passion for transport, innovation and cooperation Our conviction that together we’ll be stronger and bring more to our members We believe that : Our successes in our regions can become an asset for Europe if : o We talk together and trust each other o We work together o We set up joint projects, are involved and contribute to the major European initiatives Differences but shared values

6. 6 Worked on competencies and complementarity mapping Topics identified : energy management, interoperability, standardisation, mobility and passenger information, intelligent trafic management and control systems, …first joint projects being developed Lobby and get recognition at European level : Commission, ERRAC, UNIFE,… Expressed our strong support to the JTI Shift²Rail to the Commission, to the Parliament and signed a MoU with UNIFE ERCI Joint actions

7. 7 Extend the current cooperation agreement to important European railway countries Coordinate with existing platforms and networks (ERRAC, UNIFE, EURNEX, UIC,…). Work on the mainstream of Horizon 2020, on Shift²Rail and bring our contribution (embark SME’s, make tools and platforms available) Speed-up coordination, communication and boost big companies to work together with SMEs and research institutes on close-to- market projects. ERCI today for tomorrow

8. 8 Some key reasons for a strong support : need of step changes, of continuity, critical mass, more market orientation and shorter time- to-market (feasibility evaluation, prototyping, large scale demonstrators…), more pragmatic call processes Contribution : years of experience in collaborative R&I projects throughout Europe with a special focus on embarking industrial SME (technology providers, innovative equipment manufacturers, suppliers,..) as key players in the innovation and supply chain. Expectations : time has come now for a quick decision to go ahead ! We need to find a way to be associated to the work (e.g. Specifications and Requirement Groups) and to the benefits. ERCI and SHIFT²RAIL

9. 9 Together towards a better railway system : cooperation, solidarity, continuity, innovation www. eurailclusters.eu